Friday, 21 February 2014

For over a year, since we finished walking the Lancaster Canal, my Thursday walks with Pete have been circular within reasonable driving distance of home. I am now running out of options without repeating, and a further self imposed limitation involves keeping to Tarmac as much as possible in view of bog-logged footpaths.This week I managed to squeeze another between all the previous Memory Map computer routes. Since the canal walk we can't remember a Thursday. apart from our respective absences on holidays etc., when we have been unable to walk because of weather. Strangely, we reflected that when I was away in Wales last Thursday the weather did prevent walking, but our mutual record remains intact.

Distant Kendal to the south, and the busy A6

Imagine waiting for the bus that never comes on a dark winter's night.I bet it's haunted as well.

It was all happening at the auction mart (Café Ambio) when we arrived - they were having a machinery demo day. I know I have tractor enthusiasts out there, but I reckon these modern monsters will not have them in ecstasy as much as vintage models they display on their own blogs.

Monday, 17 February 2014

I have been aware of different spellings for this place-name. I have used the one shown in the title above consitently, but only bothered to research the issue today. Here is an extract from Wikipedia's entry:The name Llŷn is also sometimes spelled Lleyn, although this spelling is now less common and is generally considered to be an anglicisation.Here is a link to a short slideshow of the pics I took on my camera as opposed the ones shown on my posts taken with the iPad-mini. Some pictures are blurred especially on summits - it was impossible to hold the camera still in the strong winds. The iPad was even worse, vibrating like a piece of cardboard stuck out of a car window. Also seeing anything useful in the so called viewfinders was often a problem.Click for slideshow

If you click on the first picture you should then see the full screen version.

Saturday, 15 February 2014

Friday 14th February, and today, Saturday 15th (writing this up over breakfast after a long spell of not being able to get on the Internet).

Wild wet and windy again yesterday, through the night, and again this morning. Went nowhere yesterday.

I'm reading a difficult book: Ancient Paths by Graham Robb. This is properly academic, not pseudo science. He has a theory about the Gauls or Celts or Druids, which all seem to be the same lot to me. We are talking about the inhabitants of what is now France between AD and 400BC. He reckons they established pathways between significant places based on equinoctial lines. The history of these people and their interactions with the Romans and others is complicated. I am over halfway through and will probably skip the rest, but there was one little gem for the brotherhood of list tickers which I seem to get associated with. Talking about part of his theory he says:

"The closest equivalent today is the Degree Confluence Project, whose adherents, in a peculiarly twenty-first-century spirit of mystical fervour and absurdist irony, visit intersections of whole-number latitude and longitude coordinates with a camera. These mathematically defined sites, are by their nature, nowhere in particular, which is why this admirable application of geekiest obsession and physical intrepidity is currently amassing what must be the world's most boring collection of photographs".

Friday, 14 February 2014

Three Ms today which means I have completed all eight in this region except for the one on Bardsey Island, and I can see no prospect of getting there on this visit.

The day has been bright and sunny but cold, and winds on summits are still massive. On the third M the single track road was comprehensively blocked by three huge fallen pines making a barrier eight feet high and spreading twenty feet down the road. A couple of guys were busy with chain saws, but I reckon it could take them a few days. I adopted plan B by parking and striking up to Carneddol from that point. I did have to surmount a drystone wall protected on both sides by barbed wire fences, and was well pleased at not ripping any expensive clothing or breaking any bones.

Carn Fadryn had a geocache on the summit, but it was another pile of boulders with the cache hidden "in a crevice in a mini cave thirty metres from the summit."There were many mini caves and at thirty metres from the summit gps said the cache was still twenty metres away, and the wind was blowing me so much I couldn't concentrate on searching so it will be logged as a dnf (did not find).

There were other fallen trees seen on my travels and the sound of chainsaws was ubiquitous.

Had weather been amenable I would probably go home tomorrow, but the next window is Sunday so I will continue to chill out here until then, especially considering I am towing the caravan.

Thursday, 13 February 2014

I am humbled with enquiries about my well being in the light of Red Warning weather conditions. I have been safely hunkered down feeling like Donald Crowhurst whilst his fellow competitors were battling it out round The Horn.

The site is serendipitously well sheltered - a flook, not my organisation. I have been watching a stand of forty foot pines bending like Norman archers bows, and listening to rain as though the caravan was being shotblasted from the outside.

I am suffering hardship, but not complaining. The mains electric has gone off here and in my host's farmhouse. With electric hookup what you use is inclusive in the site fee, so heat and lighting are used like confetti at a wedding, but you would be amused to see me scrimping on my use of the precious gas that I have to pay for, and measuring the amount of water by mugsfull as I heat up for a brew. Lighting is supported by my twelve volt battery which normally gets charged by the mains electric, so what I have now is a finite resource related to how long the battery will last, so I am dodging about doing my chores only using a single twelve volt light.

All is calm and blue sky at 8:30 am on Thursday. I'm off to the farm to see if there is any news about the electricity.

9:00 am, back again. The whole of Criccieth is off electric, hopefully to be restored today. I am having signal trouble so it may be a while before this gets posted.

Tuesday, 11 February 2014

The first of these, although perhaps the easiest of ascent is, in my opinion, the best in this peninsula group. Being close to the sea and near the end of the peninsula overlooking Aberdaron Bay to the south east and the Irish Sea to the west the views are brilliant and atmospheric. You can even see the snow capped peaks of Snowdonia far away to the north east. The approach was on desperately narrow country lanes, and the walk up took only twenty minutes.

Mynydd Rhiw has a road to within a kilometre of the summit which continues as a track to service the aerial mast at the summit. It would be quite easy to drive up that track to within fifty yards of the trig but I left the car and had a bracing walk with cold wind and bright sunshine. There was a nostalgic for me view of Hell's Mouth and its adjoining coastline which were all part of my Welsh Boundary walk in 2011.

Monday, 10 February 2014

Ascent was from the cottage Tan-y-Graig shown on the OS map. A zig zag stalkers path took me up to the col and a final ascent up the south ridge. The extensive summit cone is the rockiest jumble of awkward slippery granite boulders I have experienced anywhere including all the Munros. Great care was needed and it took me the best part of an hour to negotiate there and back to the summit from the grassy col. This is a serious little mountain.

The day had started with persistent rain and I had settled down to read The Old Ways by Robert Macfarlane. The current chapter covered walking with a Palestinian friend in The West Bank - very descriptive, and dangerous, and not a pleasant sounding environment. The book is a good read taking accounts of walking to a refreshingly different level.

At 10:00 am the rain stopped and the sun shone, and except for cloud on the summit I had a great day. It was just a joy to be back in the hills.

IPad pics.

1. My summit ( with snow) can just be seen peeping over the left hand ridge halfway down.

Sunday, 9 February 2014

Today I revisited part of my 2011 walk round Wales ascending from the village of Llithfaen to a car park to climb Yr Eifl. I took a circular route making the final climb from the east and descended to the west. The ground was unbelievably dry considering the recent weather and I did the whole walk without rain.

The trig rests on a huge cairn of boulders, and it took me over five minutes to cover twelve feet to get to the top over the boulders with wind tearing and ripping at my clothing and throwing me off balance. I tried to take photos from the trig but it was impossible to hold the iPad or the camera still enough. I did manage some shots after retreating from the summit, but it was not easy. It makes you realise how difficult it must be getting the vital shots from Himalayan summits.

The road I came on continued steeply down hairpin brands to the coast and a dead end. Here an old quarry workers' village has been restored with outside displays, a museum and a café.

Return to caravan was by ridiculous, tortuous, single track lanes. Fortunately there is almost no traffic, but in future I reckon I will take the longer routes on the main roads.

1.Yr Eifl from the car park. I traversed round the righthand side and ascended from behind.

Saturday, 8 February 2014

At one stage during the night I thought the caravan was being blasted by a fireman's hose.

This Marilyn overlooks Porthmadog. Internet told me of a path which ended in locked gates at a cemetery a few hundred yards from the road, so I retreated in lashing rain back to the car to restart further up the road from a point I would have chosen without the website info.

Rain was on and off, but wind nearer the top and on the summit was vicious, but I have known worse. This is a steep rocky peak and I had a bit of scrambling about trying to find the highest of the rock outcrops as well as visiting the trig point. Views of the sea with perhaps thirty parallel lines of foaming breakers stretching a long long way off shore justified this ascent.

Friday, 7 February 2014

Despite the foul weather I have been clocking up geocaches. One I found a couple of days ago was a small plastic screw top tube three inches by one. I dropped the white screw top in the grass - actually saw it fall. I must have searched for ten minutes, even removing my footwear to see if it was stuck in the mud on the soles. The car was about quarter of a mile away and I resolved to go and get some gaffer tape and then replace the tube later. As I put my gloves back on I found the top inside.

My Thursday walk with Pete featured snowdrops. Each year seems to be special for a particular plant, and this year I reckon it's snowdrops' turn.

We met a farmer emerging from a field where some sort of work had been going on with an area of hardcore parking and a track.

United Utilities bad been inspecting the eight and a half foot diameter water pipe that runs from Haweswater to Manchester and we were told of the waste of resources witnessed with masses of equipment assembled and full twenty four hour security guards when this site, having been prepared was never used for its purpose.

The farmer recalled young locals riding motor bikes inside the pipe back in the Fifties whilst it was under construction.

Today (Friday) I drove to a caravan site near Criccieth on the Leynn peninsula where I am typing this and listening to the rain. The intention is to polish off the eight or possibly nine Marilyns if weather permits, otherwise catch up on some reading.

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About Me

This blog features mainly my walking exploits interspersed with other random topics

ALL REASONABLE COMMENTS WELCOME. NOT SURE HOW TO MAKE A COMMENT? EMAIL ME AT: conrob@me.com.

Cautionary quotes for those who intend to walk with others

"Will you walk a little faster?" said a whiting to a snail

"There's a porpoise close behind us, and he's treading on my tail."

"...the man who goes alone can start today, but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready, and it may be a long time before they get off."Henry David Thoreau

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Aspirations

Lives of great men will remind us

We can make our lives sublime

And,departing, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time.

Footprints, that perhaps another,

Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

Seeing, shall take heart again.

Longfellow

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"Adventure is just bad planning"

Roald Amundsen

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...he suddenly flung down his brush on the floor, said ”Bother!” and “O blow!” and also “Hang spring-cleaning!” and bolted out of the house without even waiting to put on his coat. Something up above was calling him imperiously...

Wind in the Willows

LISTS

My UK long distance walks

My French long distance walks

BOOKS

EIGHT BOOKS are available; Each one has a day to day journal and many colour photos.